Poet, author sharing her stories

Bridgetower, a biracial virtuoso violinist who lived in Europe in the early 1800s, was a celebrated musician on his way to becoming immortalized with a sonata written for him by Ludwig van Beethoven, the "Sonata per uno mulaticco lunattico." But then, the two men had a falling-out over a woman, and Beethoven changed the name of the composition, which is known popularly as the "Kreutzer" sonata. Bridgetower, a victim of circumstance, became a footnote in music history.

Two centuries later, poet Rita Dove decided to expand that footnote in her book-length lyric, "Sonata Mulattica," published earlier this year. The result of much research and an equal measure of imagination, "Sonata Mulattica" chronicles the life of a man for whom a career could be made or broken by his social standing.

"It's such an amazing thing to imagine this mixed-race boy playing through Europe at that time," says Dove, who admits to feeling a kinship with the violin prodigy. Dove achieved tremendous success at a young age, by contemporary standards: She had won the Pulitzer in poetry by her mid-30s and was named to the office of U.S. Poet Laureate at age 40, the youngest person to have held the position.

As she began her investigation of Bridgetower's story, she says she "had been kind of oblivious to the fact that one of the bases for the kinship was that fact that I had gotten recognition at a young age. But as I began to write more and more, I began to realize that was one of the reasons I was interested in the story in the first place."

Dove's work stands on its own, something that George Bridgetower, as a performer who relied on the music of composers to gain fame, couldn't enjoy. "For me as a writer, certainly someone could say, 'Oh, let's not give her this prize' or this or that, but the writing is still there," Dove says. "I always felt that the poems would have to speak for themselves, long after I could explain them or speak for them."

And though Dove hasn't had to rely on anyone else to gain recognition, she has experienced some hint of the notoriety that Bridgetower received for his most visible distinction: his race.

At a time when most black people living in predominantly white countries were slaves, Bridgetower, born in Poland and a resident of England as an adult, "had the best job in the world for his position," Dove says.

"On the other hand, people would look at him and the first thing they would see was the fact that he had African blood. (The fact) that someone was intrigued by his color, or thought that he was really exciting because he was this exotic, that's not the same as actually seeing him for who he was," she says. "At times I have identified with that. Professionally, certainly, being perceived as solely an African-American poet and not a poet who is African American. Or a female poet but not as a poet that is female. There's a subtle difference."

Many reviewers of "Sonata Mulattica" have quoted the concluding lines of her poem, "The Bridgetower": "Instead of a Regina Carter or Aaron Dworkin or Boyd Tinsley/ sprinkled here and there, we would find/rafts of black kids scratching out scales/on their matchbox violins so that some day/they might play the impossible:/ Beethoven's Sonata No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47/also known as The Bridgetower."

While the book addresses race, it is also a testimony to Dove's love of classical music, a world she is deeply immersed in. She plays the viola de gamba and began playing cello at age 10, and as an adult has received classical voice training.

"I do feel that my understanding of music influences my poetry in ways I can't even articulate," she says. "Being very sensitive to the music that language makes, the oral solicitudes of language, certainly a lot of it comes from having this musical training."

And writing poetry about other art forms is an endeavor in which Dove is well-versed: Her previous collection, "American Smooth," was a tribute, among other things, to her love of and experience in ballroom dancing.

Dove's life may be filled with music and dance, but her head is almost always filled with words - phrases and verses she tumbles around in her mind as she writes her poetry.

I ask what words Dove repeats to herself every day, what phrases or verses come up again and again.

She seems a little surprised at her own ready answer. "The beginning of one of Emily Dickinson's poems," she says. " 'This is my letter to the world, that never wrote to me.' That's how the poem begins. (Dickinson) doesn't mean it in the sad way, either. I always turn that around in my mind; I always have that in the back of my mind."

George Bridgetower may have received few missives from the world, but a letter like "Sonata Mulattica" should do something to correct that.